Out In The Streets

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I wish the storyweren't just noisy people banging pots and pans, but at least the story that a general strike had erupted among fast-food workers penetrated the general media noise -- with an assist, I suspect, from the pope, the president, and the resurgence of what Howard Dean used to call the Democratic wing of the Democratic party. The media may be a dull beast, but it responds to the momentum it feels building around it the way that a hippo responds to the currents in a river.

One-day labor walkouts were planned at fast-food restaurants in 100 cities Thursday, with protests in scores more cities and towns across the nation. Organizers, actually a loose-knit group of labor advocates mostly led by the Service Employees International Union, are pressing for an increase in the federal minimum wage, higher wages in the industry, and the right to unionize without management reprisals. The advocacy groups are hoping to build public support for raising the federal minimum wage of $7.25, or about $15,000 a year for full-time work. A common battle cry has been "Fight for 15" - a $15-per-hour minimum wage.

This is what I meant when I said that, no matter whether they actually elected congresscritters or not, at least the Occupy people were yelling at the correct buildings. These people today are yelling at the correct buildings, and at the correct people. Take, for example, the fact that so much of the linked story takes place in Detroit. This is about so very much more than what happens to people who work in fast-food joints.

"Fifteen dollars an hour is not a reasonable approach," said Justin Winslow, the Michigan Restaurant Association's vice president of government affairs. In addition, the industry counters that many fast-food workers are younger workers seeking part-time work, not necessarily a lifetime career in the industry.

Not for nothing but, right at this very moment, and only a couple of days after a judge gave legal permission for the city to renege on its obligations to its retired workers -- the business elite is overjoyed that aging and crippled sanitation workers can't "jump ahead" of the bondholders in Malibu who want to pick the carcass -- Mike Illitch, the billionnaire-with-a-B owner of the Detroit Red Wings, has his tin cup out for the devastated city to kick in for a new arena for his hockey team. Mike Illitch made his fortune by being the founder of the Little Caesar's chain of pizza restaurants, wherein he paid his workers the kind of wages that has brought them out in the streets today. Yes, this about a lot more than fast food and the people who prepare it. We are all one more economic temblor away from being a fast food nation. It is about a lot more than pizza and burgers.